A heavy glut of crude oil in the Atlantic basin kept differentials of Nigerian crude oil under pressure on Wednesday, with more than 60 million barrels of November and December cargoes available for purchase.
Differentials of competing light sweet crude oil from the North Sea were also weak and high freight costs made exporting to the Americas and Asia less attractive.
Also hampering exports of West African oil to India and China, typically among the biggest buyers, was a high premium of Brent to Dubai benchmarked crudes, which made West African oil less competitive relative to Middle Eastern grades.
A sharp fall in futures prices and strong refining margins for gasoline in the United States was seen supporting demand for light sweet Nigerian oil, traders said, though this had yet to be seen in the physical market.